Farzana: 'I am hopeful'

Feeling so moved by all the remarkable creative and critical young people I get to work with and learn from. Shake! last week, as per usual, blew me away. It's always just too much! Today is also the last day of a summer program I have been coordinating with young women in my community and of course they too completely smashed it.

I can't help but be hopeful for the future, especially for gender and race relations, despite the state of everything in this world telling us otherwise. How can there be so many imaginative, fierce and self-empowered young people and people of colour and things remain the same?

I pray and hope that the relentless injustices they face does not wither away their zeal for bringing about powerful and transformative change. Or that the day-to-day sickness inflicted by capitalism and patriarchy does not wear away at the rigorous challenging and questioning they have embarked on.

Equally, I hope that us as facilitators, educators, artists, activist or in whatever we do, we are always working to cultivate engaged and embodied spaces for young people, esp for young women and people of colour. And that these spaces always bring in and considerately hold the marginalised in our communities, in the way that any sense of other-ing only comes from a place of self-distinguished autonomy and affirmed identity and not ever from a sense of not belonging. More over, that these spaces are forever unapologetically gentle while stringently equipping us for the long fight in dismantling unfair power structures and working towards justice.

I am hopeful!

Farzana Art Party Hero!

We're very proud to announce that our very own Farzana Khan (coordinator extraordinaire) has been immortalized as an "Art Party Hero" nail wrap! Farzana (herself still within the 16-25 age group of Shake! participants) has been listed among the likes of bell hooks, Augusto Boal and Suzanne Lacy.

The full list of #artpartyheroes are listed here and also includes Gabriel Anderson, a 13 year old student who Shakers that attended the Emergence summit in 2012 will remember from his performances with long-time Platform collaborators, The Institute for the Art and Practice of Dissent at Home.


The Nailwraps created by Phoebe Davies in collaboration with Artsadmin are designed to honour "the brilliant, the bold and the beguiling artists and educators that continue to inspire young minds in spite of the ever more damaging policies and cuts doled out to the education sector." 

Gwan shake that manicured-nail-wrap fist Farzana! x

And …Where Do You and I Fit In?- Reflections on Coordinating Shake!

Some 9 months since joining Platform, I wanted to offer some reflection on working on Shake!, which is  the project I co-ordinate and what I largely work on. This piece is extracted from my concluding remarks at our last Shake! Showcase , slightly paraphrased for the blog reader. Shake! is a project that brings together young people, artists & campaigners to develop creative responses to social injustice. Our next Shake intensive course is running during 5-9 of August, info below.

Shake! intensive at the Stephen Lawrence Charitable Trust 22/02/2013

Whenever anyone asks me about Shake! and what is that we do, I always struggle and the more I get involved with Shake!, it becomes increasingly  harder. You’ll often find me deferring the responsibility and cheekily inviting the rest of the Shake! team or Shake! participants to answer, probing: “What is Shake! to you?” though this is often because being Voices That Shake!, we are conscientious  about ensuring people’s voices come through and each person has an opportunity to speak for themselves (especially seeing as everyone contributes and takes from Shake! uniquely and differently). It is also because I’m avoiding the responsibility of answering such an enveloping question, I find I can never express or do justice to the fullness of Shake!  However, now seems right to try.

I don’t know if you remember, a couple of years ago there was advert on T.V., I think it was some sort of banking advert, lets just suppose it was. It went along the lines of “Most banks offer you this service or this service, however we offer you this and this.”  Shake! in an entirely different sense evokes an and for me. Every time I describe what Shake! is, I find myself saying: “Shake! engages with: race and media and environment and power and social justice issues. It is a youth project but not just for young people, it informs activists and artists  and educators and older generations through its youth-led policy seminars and youth-led continuing professional development workshops( CPD). Shake! aims to diversify and inform art and activism and education and academia and social policy …” More than anything else I am saying and.  That being the case, I have come to realize that Shake! does in three definitive and profound ways embody an and for me.